Our Performance
Green Chemistry
The journey from the original discovery of a new medicine to its full development takes many years and involves numerous process developments and refinements on the original chemistry. This, of course, includes improvements in the effectiveness of the specific medicine and process efficiencies such as yield. However, it is also essential that the downstream environmental impacts of manufacture be considered.
What can be made in the laboratory with small quantities of reagents may not be accept¬able for scale-up to manufacture, due to the quantities or types of materials involved and their associated environmental impact.
Our Sandwich based Green Chemistry Team has now been established for three years. Building on an established foundation of environmentally responsible process development, our development and production chemists are ensuring that we formally review relevant stages of our discovery, development and pre-production steps to minimise wastes and their potential environmental impact.
During 2007, the Green Chemistry Team has again undertaken communication and awareness activities within the organisation to further promote the principles of Green Chemistry, including our second and highly successful Green Chemistry Symposium and the Sandwich Green Chemistry Awards.
Fourteen teams of scientists from Discovery, Chemical R & D and Manufacturing entered the Green Chemistry Awards this year. Not only was this again a significant response but was also matched by the high quality of the entries. The judges awarded three awards that comprised a trophy for the winning teams and a donation of £3,000 on behalf of each team to a university that promotes Green Chemistry.
Over the last few years Pfizer scientists have received external recognition through nationally and internationally recognised award programmes.
- In 2003, our Green Chemists won the highly prestigious Faraday Green Chemistry Award from the Institute of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) for the development of an improved synthesis process for VIAGRA™ (sildenafil). In making the award, the judges considered that Pfizer went beyond the standards that might reasonably be expected as a result of routine process development.
- In 2005 we were short listed for a similar award for our Voriconazole process. Although not a formal winner, on this occasion, the short listing is a measure of the credentials of Green Chemistry that external judges recognise in the work of our chemists.
- In 2006 we won the IChemE Aztra Zenica Environmental Award for Excellance in Green Chemistry and Engineering for our Pregabalin process. The process, now approved in the European Union and in 50 countries around the world, uses biocatalytic reactions, conducting reactions in water rather than organic solvents, and will result in significant reductions in the use of reagents and the production of wastes.
- A further success in 2007 was that of our laboratory chemists in reducing the use of dichloromethane by over 31% building on impressive reductions in previous years resulting in a reduction of approximately 56% since 2005. This is one of the largest volumes of solvent we use in the laboratories and we decided to reduce its use by both good housekeeping and converting to more environmentally friendly solvents. Analysis has shown that has not been a corresponding increase in the use of other solvents. We are therefore confident that this is a real and significant achievement. We have set ourselves a further reduction target of 10% during 2008.
As part of our overall review of solvent selection we have also had success in encouraging the move to solvents with reduced environmental and safety impacts. For example during 2007 we reduced the combined consumption of pentane and hexane by over 50% through the successful substitution to heptane.
Our Green Chemistry programme is a demonstration of both the expertise and innovation of our chemists and their commitment to responsible process development and laboratory practices.